Daily Digest - 20 February 2023

Headlines

▌Bitcoin market value exceeds Visa

The data shows that the market value of Bitcoin is currently $473.23 billion, a drop of 0.5% in the past 24 hours. However, Visa's market cap is currently at $460.13 billion. At press time, Visa’s market capitalization is $13 billion lower than BTC’s.

▌The gas cost consumption of the Blur platform surpasses Uniswap and temporarily ranks first

According to the latest transaction gas fee data displayed on social media by the NFT market Blur, its platform gas fee consumption has surpassed Uniswap and Seaport 1.1, ranking first. According to data from Dune Analytics, the current transaction volume of Blur has reached 1,059,954 ETH, which is equivalent to approximately US$1.8 billion at current prices, and the total number of transactions has reached 2,059,812.

Policies

▌Rep. Garcia was expelled from the House committee for alleged FTX relationship

U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia was fired by a House committee for alleged FTX ties. Democratic Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia has been removed from the House Financial Services Committee after Republicans replaced the House of Representatives and Kevin McCarthy became the speaker of the House of Representatives. The decision to remove Garcia appears to have stemmed largely from allegations that he accepted money and donations from the SBF.

Cryptocurrency

▌Report: Encryption fraud revenue will drop by 46% in 2022

According to a new study by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, crypto scammers were less profitable last year as their revenue plummeted by nearly 50% in 2022. Crypto fraud revenue fell to $5.9 billion from a record $10.9 billion in 2021. It is worth noting that most scams in 2022 are of the investment type.

▌ Hong Kong's cryptocurrency boom is not enough to lead the recovery of the hard-hit commercial real estate market

Hong Kong’s efforts to become a cryptocurrency center and the apparent interest of Hong Kong citizens in virtual assets as an investment have prompted crypto companies to occupy commercial space in Hong Kong. However, analysts say cryptocurrencies are not hot enough to lead a recovery in Hong Kong's battered commercial real estate market and are unlikely to be the ultimate savior of Hong Kong's sluggish retail real estate market. The intensification has many cryptocurrency companies rethinking any immediate plans they had for aggressive expansion.

▌Circle Advises Central Bank of Ireland to Adopt Public Blockchain

Golden Finance reported that according to the announcement on Circle’s official website, in response to the recent Irish central bank’s solicitation of industry opinions on consumer protection topics, Circle put forward suggestions on how financial regulators can support innovation while ensuring the best interests of consumers, emphasizing blockchain-based Financial services can benefit consumers through increased competition, wider choice, disaggregation of financial services, and the open and transparent architecture of blockchain, among others. Circle also stated that public blockchains and digital currencies such as USDC and EUROC can bring benefits to consumers around the world, which has been the driving force behind Circle's mission to promote global economic prosperity.